scholarly journals British or American? Iranian EFL learners’ Perceptions toward English Accents: Exploring possible relationships

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-22
Author(s):  
Hiwa Weisi ◽  
Ali Raygan ◽  
Fatemeh Bakhtiari

Native English accents (British and American) are known as highly favored and accepted varieties compared to other existing accents in English as foreign language (EFL) context. Notwithstanding the research accomplished on EFL learners’ attitudes toward either of the accents (British or American), studies are still scant regarding the investigation of their perspectives in detail toward one of the accents specifically within the context of Iran. The aim of this study is to examine the Iranian EFL learners’ attitudes toward the two major known English accents (British and American. Additionally, the study highlights the major factors contributing to the learners’ preferences toward either of the accents (British or American). To that aim, a developed and validated questionnaire was distributed among 108 EFL learners selected from two of the major EFL contexts (universities and private institutes). The results indicated that the majority of the learners preferred American over British English accent. Besides, factor analysis revealed that American English exposure, lack of guidance, and lack of reinforcement toward British accent were among the mentioned factors accepted by learners for their preference of American. Finally, the study concludes with interpretations regarding the learners’ decision making issues in either of the two major accents, and recommendations are provided for revisiting the EFL learners’ attitudes and insights toward native English accents.

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Maryam Sharafi Nejad ◽  
Shohreh Raftari ◽  
Shaik Abdul Malik Mohamed Ismail ◽  
Lin Siew Eng

Writing connotes the declaration or expression of thoughts, feelings, plans and wishes in a composed form that demands skills and expertise as opposed to knowledge. Skillful writing calls for diligent work, perusing or reading, composing through reaching inferences from perusing materials and long period of practice. This study seeks to investigate the problems and identify the practical needs of writing skill in English as Foreign Language (EFL) context with special focus on Iranian citizens studying in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). In Iran, learning English language appears cumbersome for learners because it is handled as a foreign language. Hence, the leaners are confronted with plethora of problems in writing the language because it is not utilized in real life conversation or situation. In order to achieve its objectives, the study administered questionnaires to the respondents to elicit information on the difficulties confronting them while learning English as Foreign Language and their pragmatic needs.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Arini Sabrina

2013 Curriculum now has been implemented so widely in Indonesia, especially in English teaching and learning process. It delineates some focal points like student-centred active learning and contextual teaching which hopefully brings the students to learn more effectively. Furthermore, there is an apparent unanimity that the curriculum may lead the meaningfulness of learning. In relation to English teaching approach, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is likened to the latest curriculum. CLT emphasises on the context and authenticity. Thus, this approach should go along with 2013 Curriculum. This study aims at finding out the implementation of CLT in line with the curriculum, since many previous studies alert some problems happening while CLT is applied not in ESL as its birthplace, yet in EFL context. In fact, Indonesia perceives English as foreign language. But, there are still few studies related to this approach. After observation and document tracking are conducted, it is concluded that Scientific Approach and Communicative Language Teaching Approach are able to blend to create more effective communicative learning.


Author(s):  
Laily Maulida Septiana Harti ◽  

The ever-growing ideology of English as global language has brought significant effect to education. Moving from the want to learn the language, English literacy has become the need. Learning English thus becomes an urge, especially in English as Foreign Language (EFL) context. Teaching English needs to go over teaching the elements of the language itself, but more to encouraging learners to be able to negotiate meaning in their purposeful interaction. In EFL teaching and learning setting, various studies focusing on the pedagogy have been conducted. This study is, indeed, leading to the pedagogy of English, focusing on the resources that teachers can utilize to create a conducive environment for learning and building the students’ reservoir. In addition, the concept of space in educational setting has given a valuable contribution to carry out pedagogical approach multimodally. This paper examines the employment of multimodal classroom in an EFL university context in Indonesia to develop students’ reservoir of English. How multimodality and the use of technology provide affordances and possible constraints to the teaching and learning process is as well presented according to published researches on the same field of study.


Author(s):  
Jaleh Hasaskhah ◽  
Behzad Barekat ◽  
Nahid Farhang Asa

With the advent of digital literacy, fluency in reading from the screen has become a key category in shaping reading proficiency. Furthermore, research focusing on digital reading fluency, especially in the English as Foreign Language (EFL) context, is scarce. Therefore, this study first seeks to explore the differences in the participants’ reading fluency in paper and digital reading environments, and second to examine the participants’ attitude towards text presentation medium. To this end, the reading fluency of 30 students doing their Master’s was examined in two reading environments. Then, by using a checklist, the participants self- assessed themselves for their preference for either type of the texts. The results revealed that not only were the EFL participants more fluent in the traditional paper texts than digital ones, but also the majority had a stronger preference for the former. The findings call for greater ‘diversity adjustment’ in scholarship on digital literacy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 249
Author(s):  
Ibrahim F. F. Almaagbh

This study investigates the impact of strategic notetaking on English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ academic performance among university students in Jordan. Thus, we hypothesized that there is a significant and positive impact of strategic note-taking on EFL learners’ academic performance. To confirm this hypothesis, descriptive research design was applied in this study. 384 (three hundred and eighty-four) respondents were randomly selected from the four public universities in Jordan. This study adapted instruments which include strategic note taking and students’ academic performance measurement items and the data obtained was analysed through Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS-22). The result showed that the strategic note taking (i.e. independent variable) has significant effects on EFL learners’ academic performance (R2 =.919). Moreover, the strategic notetaking made the significant contribution (Beta= .449; t= 18.714; P <0.05) to the prediction of EFL learners’ academic performance. In line with the findings, this study emphasised and explained the impact of strategic notetaking and how to improve EFL learners’ level of notetaking for better academic performance in Jordan.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shurooq A. Ali

This study shows impoliteness as a form of face-threatening that can be intentionally caused by verbal threats in a particular setting. It investigates: what strategies and mitigators do Iraqi-Kurdish English as a foreign language (EFL) learners use in situations of threat responses? The present investigation paper aims to examine impoliteness strategies and mitigators by these learners when they respond to threatening situations in their context. Thus, it fills a gap in pragmatics literature by investigating the reactions to threats in an Iraqi-Kurdish EFL context. To this end, 50 participants have participated in this study. An open-ended questionnaire in the form of a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) is used to elicit responses from the participants. Besides, a focus group interview is conducted to support the data analysis. The data are coded based on Limberg’s (2009) model of impoliteness and threat responses to figure out the strategies used by the learners. Blum-Kulka, House, and Kasper’s (1989) taxonomy of mitigators is adapted to analyze the mitigators. Overall, the findings reveal that the preferred responses surpass those which indicate dispreference by the learners. They tend to use face-saving acts when they comply with the threatener’s demand and opt for face-threatening acts when they reject that demand indirectly. Moreover, these learners use mitigators to attenuate the illocutionary force of their responses. Finally, this study provides some recommendations and pedagogical implications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-40
Author(s):  
Ari Fajria Novari ◽  
Yeni Maryani ◽  
Heva Rostiana

This research paper aims to analyze the comparative between British English and American English, because many language learners or English users still confuse to differentiate both of them, especially in the countries where English is foreign language. Sometimes, it cause misunderstanding in communication. The research paper use qualitative research design with characteristic of content analysis. It uses observation and documentation in collecting the data. The obtained data is vocabulary in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 9th edition which published in 2015. The researcher took 150 words to be analyzed. Based on the data analysis there are three differences in Vocabulary of British English and American English.  The researchers divide the differences into three categories they are differences in Vocabulary (word using), spelling, and pronunciation. The researcher found 50 different words in vocabulary (word using), 50 different words in spelling and 50 words which have differences in pronunciation. Based on findings of this research, it is significant for language learners or English user to know the differences of British English and American English and improve their vocabulary of British and American English in order to decrease misunderstanding in communication. The researchers hope language learners or English user can decide which English varieties that will they use and the can use one of English varieties consistently.


Author(s):  
Lukman Lukman

This research aimed to determine the implementation of the hidden curriculum in EFL learners’ interest. This research was conducted in AL-FITYAN Senior Hight School Gowa. Qualitative approach employed in this study. More specifically, this research employed the descriptive qualitative method. Data collection procedures in this study were the observation, recoding, and interview. Based on the research, it can be seen that the spiritual-cultural aspect of hidden curriculum was implemented in the first class. The findings show that the teacher employed some elements in implementing the hidden curriculum in term of spiritual-cultural aspect. (1) Giving advice and guidance, (2) providing inspiring story and utterance, and (3) applying exemplary. Furthermore, the effects of hidden curriculum implementation can emerge learners’ awareness so that they can be happy, enthusiastic, focus, and avoid their resistance in learning. The result of that, can stimulate the learners’ interest and then construct their attention and motivation.


Author(s):  
Novalina Sembiring

This research was a descriptive research which was aimed at finding out the similarities, dissimilarities and the contributions of the contrastive analysis on teaching English as a foreign language. The data of this research were collected through library and internet sources. The researchers use comparative descriptive method to analyse the data. The obtained results was the comparison of American and British English in vocabulary, grammar, spelling, pronunciation and the contributions of them in teaching English as a foreign language. The research finding shows that British and American English are very similar in many aspects. Even though British and American English are mostly similar, they also have some differences. The difference of British and American English can be found in terms of vocabulary, grammar, spelling and pronunciation. Among them, vocabulary is the largest one. It is suggested that lecturers and teachers aware of the similarities and differences between British and American English in teaching English as a foreign language so that it will lead to the successful teaching of English including its varieties.


Author(s):  
Iitha Priyastiti

Discussions of the second language (L2) pedagogy have been studied not only in the language and education fields. Experts working in the psychology field also propose theories on applied linguistics because L2 acquisitions involve external and internal processes. However, despite numerous studies on the field, it appears that an issue regarding the use of first language (L1) still creates continuous debates. Although arguments opposing the use of first L1 present compelling theories as to their rationale, they appear to overlook the context in which teaching and learning process takes place. The studies were either conducted in English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL), where teachers are native speakers who do not share the same L1 with students. Considering the uniqueness in classroom contexts, this paper is not going to argue or take sides on the conflicting views on the use of L1. Instead, it attempts to acknowledge the gap of the context in language teaching used in previous studies. Using a sociocultural theory, this article will describe the beneficial use of L1 with a focus on its use by teachers in an EFL context where teachers share the same L1 with students. Keywords: first language, English as a Foreign Language, sociocultural theory


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document